How Could I Forget?
by FKDaniels
Summary: My take on how Booth remembers Brennan. Set after 4th season. R&R? Yes?


I own nothing. This story kept spinning round my head and I wanted to upload it before the 5th season started. Please R&R even if you didn't like.

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The credits rolled and Temperance Brennan wiped a single tear away. She thought she was being foolish, the characters weren't real, they were just actors and even if they were real, they had nothing to do with her. But she couldn't help it, since she and Booth had become a couple, she had become more able to show her feelings and not bury herself in her work. She smiled thinking about her and Booth and snuggled further into his warm embrace. She looked up at his face, he had fallen asleep in the movie. She smiled, he looked so peaceful, so happy. She remembered that was how he looked the first time they had fallen asleep holding each other. She smiled at the memory, the memory of how they got together. It had taken time and there was a point when she thought he would never remember her but it had been worth it.

***

"Hodgins, yes, I remember. J-J-Jack!" Booth exclaimed as realisation dawned on him of who his colleague was. Everyone smiled and clapped except one. One woman sniffed and staring at the floor, walked off to her office, closing her door behind her. He had now remembered everyone, everyone except Dr Brennan. He didn't get it, no-one had said anything, but he got the sense that they were close. They were partners after all but he couldn't for the life of him remember who she was. He had remembered everyone else when they did something typical of them or he saw something that reminded him of them.

Angela was trying to get him to remember everyone in the office in the hope that he could tie them to Dr Brennan. He even remembered the employees at the diner when they brought him pie and charged him the oh-so familiar amount.

"Right, Booth, remember Bren now? Her and Hodgins were buried alive once together" Angela prompted but was met with a blank stare from Booth.  
"You saved them?"  
"They were in a car underground?"  
"You dug them out?"  
Still a blank stare. She gave an exasperated sigh and sank into her office chair with her head in her hands. The team sat in silence each mulling over their own thoughts.

Suddenly, Jack Hodgins jumped up from his chair and strode quickly out of the room. Everyone looked at each other with eyebrows raised. When Hodgins returned, Angela saw he was carrying a small, pink, plastic thing in his hand which he thrusted in Booth's face.  
Booth gingerly took it out of his hand and looked at it, turning it over in his hands. It was a small plastic pig.  
With eyebrows raised, he asked "Is this supposed to mean something to me?"  
Frustrated, Hodgins said "_You_ gave this to her, _you_ gave it to her and she called it Jasper. She always wanted a pet pig. Don't you remember?" Hodgins searched Booth's face for even the smallest trace of recognition. Nothing.

Angela got to her feet again and pulled out a book from one of her shelves. She flipped through it and Booth saw that it was filled with many photos and captions. He recognised a few people and others, he didn't. He wondered if these were also people he should know but hadn't remembered or if they were merely strangers. The thought that there might be more important people he couldn't remember made him feel sick and he looked away as Angela continued to flip through the book.  
"Okay" said Angela, purposefully. She turned the photo album round so that Booth could see it and she pointed to a photo. It was a photo of the team plus himself and Dr Brennan dressed in Christmas clothing in the lab. "This was taken the Christmas we all got locked in here because of biological contamination. Look, you're standing next to her, how can you not remember?"  
Booth looked closely at her, but nothing clicked. She was still just the woman who had helped him when he was still in hospital and brought him clothes and DVDs and the woman who drove him home and made him meals but nothing else. He looked up at the team, they were all watching him with baited breath hoping that something would change and he would remember. He slowly shook his head. The team exhaled loudly and each returned to their seats, shaking their head and thinking to themselves. He felt bad, they all seemed to be putting so much effort in. Was it so bad if he didn't remember her? But as he thought that, the image of Dr Brennan walking into her office with tears sliding down her cheeks left him with the idea that they must have been close. Friends? Family? More than friends? People had said that their relationship was tricky to explain and he should remember for himself.

Sweets came and sat opposite Booth, observing him as if he were some great puzzle.  
"Geez, stop squinting at me, Sweets."  
Sweets rolled his eyes, "Right, I'm going to say a word and you say the first word that comes into your mind, okay?  
"This is stupid" Angela glared at Booth, "Fine, okay, okay. Shoot."  
"Cam?" "Boss."  
"Hodgins?" "Bugs." Hodgins smiled but immediately stopped when he saw Angela's glare.  
"Angela?" "Art."  
"Brennan?" "Bones." He gasped and everyone else, relieved, looked at Sweets appreciatively.

"Bones, bones...bones" Booth whispered to himself. It was what Dr Brennan was good at, he'd seen her since he got out of hospital, studying bones so closely. But it was more than that, it was...it was her...name. Then, suddenly, as if flood gates had been opened, memories started filling his mind so fast and he wondered how he'd ever forgotten.

He remembered her insisting he call her by her name, not "Bones".

He remembered her letting her guard down and dancing and singing along to 'Hot Blooded'.

He remembered jumping in front of a bullet for her, willing to give his life for hers.

He remembered too, the punch he received for his fake funeral.

He remembered helping drag her round an ice rink.

He remembered kissing her under the mistletoe. Kissing her.

The team were watching him, his eyes darting back and forth, mouthing "Bones" under his breath. He suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room. They all exchanged smiles and one word passed over all their lips "Finally!".

***

Dr Brennan closed her office door behind her and wiped away the tears she had told herself she wouldn't let fall. She fell into her office chair and tried to preoccupy her mind by sorting out her most recent case files but Booth's signature was all over it, signing various legal documents. She pushed the papers to the side, more tears falling.  
She booted up her computer, working on her book always helped take her away from the stress of work. Maybe it would work now. Her computer flickered into life and her wallpaper picture of her and Booth grinning stupidly at an FBI party greeted her. She sobbed out loud, burying her head in her arms. How could this be happening to her? She was a woman of science and logic. This just wasn't logical. She didn't know how long she sat there for crying- it could've been a minute, could've been an hour. She heard the door open silently and she quickly tried to compose herself. Wiping away tears and making herself look busy by looking through her filing cabinet which conveniently meant she was facing away from whoever was at the door.  
"Temperance?"  
"Booth, I'm kind of busy. Later, yeah?" she choked out.  
"Bones?" Booth said softly, taking a few more steps into the room.  
Brennan froze, he had called her "Bones", the name he and only he called her. She turned around slowly and walked towards him so she had to look up into his eyes.  
"You remember me?" she whispered, she was afraid, that by saying the words, by breaking the silence, somehow he'd forget. More tears slid down her face.

"How could I forget?" he said, a tear sliding down his own face.  
"These arms," he said holding her shoulders and then stroking her arms and eventually taking her hands in his.  
"These eyes," he said taking her face in his hands and brushing away the tears with his thumbs.  
"These," he paused "lips."  
Then, he stared at her lips, not wanting to rush her, not wanting to force her into anything more than she wanted.  
And then, without warning, Brennan stretched onto her toes and brought her lips crashing against his and the last month of trying to hold her emotions back came flooding out through a kiss.

They broke apart and leant foreheads.  
"I love you, Bones. I'm so sorry."  
"It's okay, I love you too."

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What did you guys think. R&R, just so I know someone at least** read** it.


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